Practice Is Funny That Way. For Days

I Talked To Over Two Hundred Patients And Family Members About Their Experiences With Aging, Serious Illnesses, And The Big Unfixables. But I Also Spoke With Scores Of Physicians, And Especially Geriatricians, Palliative Care Doctors, Hospice Nurses, And Nursing Home Workers. The Biggest Thing I Found Was That When These Clinicians Were At Their Best, They Were Recognizing That People Had Priorities Besides Merely Living Longer. The Most Important And Reliable Way That We Can Understand What People's Priorities Are, Besides Just Living Longer, Is To Simply Ask. And We Don't Ask.

Better Is Possible. It Does Not Take Genius. It Takes Diligence. It Takes Moral Clarity. It Takes Ingenuity. And Above All, It Takes A Willingness To Try.

Sometimes We Can Offer A Cure, Sometimes Only A Salve, Sometimes Not Even That. But Whatever We Can Offer, Our Interventions, And The Risks And Sacrifices They Entail, Are Justified Only If They Serve The Larger Aims Of A Person's Life. When We Forget That, The Suffering We Inflict Can Be Barbaric. When We Remember It The Good We Do Can Be Breathtaking.

When We Lived In A Society Where We Had Large Families That Lived Together, Especially In Agricultural Societies Like My Grandfather And Father Grew Up In, The Result Is You Always Had Family Around To Take Care Of You.

You Can't Make A Recipe For Something As Complicated As Surgery. Instead, You Can Make A Recipe For How To Have A Team That's Prepared For The Unexpected.